Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-06-03

hope. Shivering in the cold, they have
had no food for twenty four hours. You
say "Why don't they beg?" They do, but
they get nothing. You soy: @Why don't
they deliver themselves over to the aims
house7" All, you would not ask that if
child when told that he must 60 to the
almshouse.
"Oh!" you say, sthey are vicious poor,
and, therefore, they do not deserve our
sympathy" Are they vicious? So much
moro need they your pity. The Christian
poor, God helps them. Through their
night there wrinkles the round, merry star
Of hope, and through tho broken Window
pane they sec the crystals of Heaven; but
the vicious poor, they are more 10 be
piticd. Their last light has gone out. You
excuse yeurself from helping them by say
ing they are SO bad. they brought this
give ten prayers for the innocent who are
suffering will give twenty prayers for the
guilty who are suffering.
The fisherman, when he sees vessel
dashisg into the breakers, comes out from
his hut and wraps the warmest fannels
around those who are most chilled and
most bruised and most battered in the
wrecll; and want you to know that these
vicious poor have had two shipwrecks-
shipwreck of the body, shipwreck Of tho
oul-shipwreck for time, shipwreck for
eternity. Pity, by all means, the innocent
who are suffering, bat pity moro the guilty.
Pass on through the alley. Open the
door. 40" you say, sit is locked" No,
it is not locked. 1t has nover been locked.
No burglar would DO tempted to go in
there to steal anything. The door is mover
locked. Only broken chair stands
against the door. Shove it back. Go in.
Strike match. Now look. Beastliness
and rags. See those glaring eyeballs. BE
careful now what you say. Do not utter
any suspicion, if you value your life. What
is that red mark on the wall? Its the mark
of q murderers hand!
Look at those eyes rising up out of the
darkness and ont from the straw in the
corner, coming toward you, and as they
come near you your light goes out. Strike
another match: All this is babe. not like
those beautiful children presented in bap-
tism. This little one never smiled; it never
will smile. A flower flung on an awfully
barren beach. Oh! heavenly Shepherd,
fold that little one in Thy arms. Wrap
around you your shawl or your coat
tighter, for the cold wind sweeps through.
Strike another match. All! is it possible
that that young woman's scared and
bruised face was ever looked into by mnter-
nal tendssDAss? Utter no scorn. Utter no
harsh 400. No roy of hope ever will
dawn on that brow. Butthe light has gone
out. Do not strike another light. It
would be mockery to kindle another light
in such place as that. Pass out and pass
down the street. Our cities of Brooklyn
and New York and all our great cities are
full of such homes, and the worst time the
third watch of the night.
Do You know it is in this third watch of
the night that criminals do their worst
work2 It is the criminals watch.
At $3.50 o'clock you will find them in tho
drinking saloon, but toward - they go to
their garrets, they get out their tools, then
they start ON the street. Watching on
either side for the police, they go to their
work Of darkness. This is O burglar, and
the false key will soon touch the store lock.
This is aa incendiary, and before morning
there will be a light or the sky and cry
of @Fire! fret" This is an assassin, and
body in one of the vacant lots. During the
daytime these villains in our cities lounge
about, some asleep and some awake, but
when tho third watch of the night arrives,
their eye keen, their brain cool, their arm
strong, their foot feet to fly Or pursue, they
are ready.
Many of these poor creatures were
brought up in that way. They were born
in thieves garrett. Their childish toy was
q burglars dark lantern. The first thing
they remember was their mother bandaging
the brow OF their father, struck by the
police club. They begun by robbing boys
pockets, and now they have come to dig the
underground passage to the cellar of the
bank and are preparing to blast the gold
vault.
Just SO long as there arc neglected chill
dren on the street just so long we will have
these desperadoes. Some one, wishing to
mako good Christian point and to quote
passage Of Scripture, expecting 10 get
Scriptural passage in answer, said to one
of these poor lads, cast out and wretched:
"When your father and your mother for.
sake you, who then will take you up?" And
tho boy said: "The perlice! the perlice!"
In the third watch of the night gambling
does it's worst work. What though the
hours be Slipping away, and though the
wife be waiting in the cheerless home?
Stir up the fire. Bring on more drinks.
house that only little while ago put out a
sign of copartnsrship will this winter be
wrecked on gamblers table. There will
be many money till that will spring
leak. A member OF Congress gambled with
a member elect and won $4,000. The
old way of getting living is so slow. The
old way of getting fortune is so stupid.
Come, let Us toss up and see who shall
have it. And SO the work goes on, from
the Wheeling wretches pitching pennies in
a rum grocery up to the millionaire gam
bier in the stock market.
In the third watch of the night pass down
the streets of these cities, and you hear the
click of the dice and the sharp, keen stroke
of the ball OH the billiard table. At these
places merchant princes dismount, and
Legislators, tired of making laws, take
respite in breaking them. AL classes of
people are robbed by this crime-the inn
porter of foreign silks and the dealer in
Chatham street pocket handkerchiefs. The
clerks of the store take hand after the
shutters arc put up, and the officers of the
court while away their time while the jury
is out.
In Baden-B Baden, when that city was the
greatest of all gambling places on earth, it
was no unusual thing the next morning, in
the woods around aboutthe city, to find the
suspended bodies of suicides. Whatever
be the splendor Of surroundings, there is
no excuse for this crime. The thunders of
eternal destruction roll in the deep rumble
of that gambling tenpin alley, and as men
come out to join the long procession of
sin, all the drums OF death beat the dead
march of q thousand souls.
In one year, in the city of New York,
there were $7,OGO,000 sacrificed at the